Strategy for Victory
Mt. 4:1-3
Matthew 4:1, records Jesus being led in the wilderness under the control of the Spirit to be tempted by the devil. The word tempted means to go through or go beyond, to examine, or to test. In the context of Matthew 4:1, the word temptation should not be confused with the Lord’s model prayer that says, lead us not into temptation, which means to experience evil. There’s a difference between experiencing evil, and being tested. Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tested by the devil. And because it was the Spirit that led Jesus there, it was the will of God that Jesus be tempted by the devil.
It is important that we understand that although Satan is a fallen angel, he has not stopped performing God’s purpose for creating him, which is to glorify God. God will allow you to be tested because the test validates that you are a new creation in Christ; that you are a member of His royal priesthood, His holy nation; peculiar people that show forth God’s praise. De-spite what the devil brings upon you, your victory in the test results in God’s glory. The test shows forth God’s praise because of His spirit that dwells in you, which reiterates that the devil is defeated, and has no power to rule you.
Notice how in Matthew 4:2-3 that is was after Jesus had fasted for 40-days and 40-nights that the test began, and not during the time of fasting. Fasting does not ward off temptation, it prepares you for the temptation. Fasting provides the spiritual strength to master your fleshly desires so that you’re able to withstand the temptation. Fasting increases your spiritual sensitivity so that you’re able to discern between the voice of the tempter and your own thoughts. During Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, the conversations between the devil and he were not audible conversations, they took place in the mind of Jesus. When God’s people don’t exercise the spirit through fasting and prayer, they lack the spiritual sensitivity to discern the voices that are in their head.
In Matthew 4:3, the temptation began by the devil saying, if you be the Son of God… The use of the word “If” did not mean that the devil was doubting who Jesus was, and challenging Jesus to prove that he was the Son of God. To refer to Jesus as Son of God, was an acknowledgment that Jesus is the God-man; the visible image of the invisible God; God manifested to mankind in physical form, in human flesh. The devil was acknowledging that Jesus came from God, and because he [Jesus] is God, exercise your power to do what you want. The devil came to appeal to Jesus’ human will by the means of tempting him to exercise his will to satisfy his hunger for food. It would seem reasonable to satisfy hunger; however, in this instance, had Jesus exercised his will, he would have been outside of the will of God because it wasn’t he that led him into the wilderness, but by the will of the Spirit. Like Jesus we have to follow the guidance of the Spirit.
Each of us will experience being led into the wilderness. It may not be a desert place. Your wilderness experience is the place where it is confirmed that you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Your wilderness is a place where you decide that for God you’ll live and for God you’ll die. The wilderness is the place of surrender; a humbling place; a life changing place, and place where the truth concerning your inward person is revealed.